Omer Said
Omer Said is a Turkish racing driver who races at Race Department Simulation Career. '1988' Having failed to get any seats at the 1987 season due to economical constraints, Said entered the 1988 season with more ambition, and eventually successfully signed a contract with Team Lotus thanks to his country's financial backing. Driving as Sebastien Levret's team-mate, Said managed to win the first race of the season with a dominant performance. After two terrible races, he won again at the fourth race of the season at Mexico Hermanos Rodriguez. Fifth race of the season, Canadian Grand Prix went very bad for him. He qualified only 13th on the grid. In the first part of the race he was held up by Fred Owen's March, and eventually crashed out into the barriers after a collision with Williams' Old Wolf. Sixth and seventh rounds of the season too, did not go well for Said as he retired at Detroit and finished 18th at France. With the eighth round of the season, Said's luck turned and he managed to prove a great climb-up into 2nd from 17th grid spot. His title rival Aidan Keranen's retirement rose him up to the championship lead again. The German Grand Prix started well for Said as he was qualified on 7th. But the race was marred by constant traffic, then Sasha Jednak pushed him out of the track while fighting for the 6th position. He returned to track in 14th, and finished there as the incident happened on the final few laps. Hungary was a terrible race for Said again. Starting from a bad position due to his poor qualifying performance, the Turkish had a race with fightings in the midfield until his engine gave up. Belgian Grand Prix, which is held on Said's personal favorite track, Spa-Francorchamps, witnessed Said's return to podium. After a problematic qualifying session, Said started from the dead last, 22th spot. But with a great pitstop strategy and focused drive, he managed to finish on 2nd. After Belgium, Said failed to prove a solid performance and finished the season on 3rd position. Only highlight was the 3rd place at the Portuguese Grand Prix. '1991' Said decided to stick with Team Lotus. But the season went very abyssmal for the Turkish driver. Failed to score any points and finished on 21th position. '1992' Again with Team Lotus, Said started the season with a points finish at South Africa. But the rest of the season did not so well. A few points finishes and a 3rd place podium at Portugal were the highlights of the season. Even tough having a bad season, Said was happy with the realibilty of the car. He finished the season on 15th spot with 12 points. '1993' Said extended his contract with the British squad, Team Lotus. The first race at South Africa ended with a crash and it was repeated with the European Grand Prix. These two bad races were seperated with a third place in Brasil. Chasing Lesley Buurlage of Tyrell, Said finished on 2nd for three consecutive times and managed to achieve victory at the French Grand Prix to decrease the gap with the leader to 20 points. After a disappointing 7th in Germany, Said bounced back by winning the Hungarian Grand Prix from the pole position. The Turkish driver managed to stay in the lead for the whole race and won ahead of his team-mate, Sebastien Levret with a crushing 1 minute gap. This result shrinked his title-fight gap to 24 points. Said's favorite track, Spa-Francorchamps presented a nightmare for the Lotus driver. After starting on 3rd, he quickly began to lose ground against Tyrells and finally had a gearbox problem while Buurlage finished on 2nd place. Said started on pole at the Porteguese Grand Prix, but could not hold Lesley off and finished 2nd behind him. With this result, Lesley became the world champion before two races of the season's end. Said made a great finish to the season with a pole position and a victory at Austrulia. With this result, he finished the championship as the runner-up to Lesley Buurlage. '1994' Said retained his seat at Team Lotus for another year. He teamed up with Sebastien Levret again. In the winter tests, solid laptimes encouraged the team and the Turkish driver. Said began to the season with high hopes and title ambitions. First race at Brasil was a big disappointment for Lotus as Said finished on 11th while Levret came 13th. Said stated his unhappiness clearly after the race. Next several races kept going terrible and without point finishes and Said made numerous negative statements about Lotus' poor performance. Just in these times, after the British Grand Prix, Lotus announced their withdrawal from F1 at the end of the season. Said immediately started negotiations for a new contract for 1995 season. After the European Grand Prix, in which Said scored 1 point, he announced his contract with Sauber for the next season. '1995' With his new team, Red Bull Sauber Ford, the Turkish driver paired up with the Greek driver, Manolis Sigoulakis. Said expressed his high hopes for the season in the pre-season testings and his laptimes were solid. Complete Formula One results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Category:Drivers Category:RD Users